I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to resource allocation in a dispatch system and, more particularly, to a rapid response to a resource allocation request from a remote unit.
II. Description of the Related Art
In a wireless telephone communication system, many users communicate over a wireless channel to connect to other wireless and wireline telephone systems. Communication over the wireless channel can be one of a variety of multiple access techniques. These multiple access techniques include time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), and code division multiple access (CDMA). The CDMA technique has many advantages. An exemplary CDMA system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307 issued Feb. 13, 1990 to K. Gilhousen et al., entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS," assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
In the just mentioned patent, a multiple access technique is disclosed where a large number of mobile telephone system users, each having a transceiver, communicate through satellite repeaters, airborne repeaters, or terrestrial base stations using CDMA spread spectrum communication signals. In using CDMA communications, the frequency spectrum can be reused multiple times permitting an increase in system user capacity.
In the CDMA cellular system, each base station provides coverage to a limited geographic area and links the remote units in its coverage area through a cellular system switch to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). When a remote unit moves to the coverage area of a new base station, the routing of the remote unit's call is transferred to the new base station. The base station-to-remote unit signal transmission path is referred to as the forward link and the remote unit-to-base station signal transmission path is referred to as the reverse link.
In an exemplary CDMA system, each base station transmits a pilot signal having a common pseudorandom noise (PN) spreading code that is offset in code phase from the pilot signal of other base stations. During system operation, the remote unit is provided with a list of code phase offsets corresponding to neighboring base stations surrounding the base station through which communication is established. The remote unit is equipped with a searching element with which it tracks the signal strength of the pilot signal from a group of base stations including the neighboring base stations.
A method and system for providing communication with a remote unit through more than one base station during the handoff process are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,261, entitled "MOBILE ASSISTED SOFT HANDOFF IN A CDMA CELLULAR COMMUNICATION SYSTEM," issued Nov. 30, 1993 assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Using this system, communication between the remote unit and the end user is uninterrupted by the eventual handoff from an original base station to a subsequent base station. This type of handoff may be considered a "soft" handoff in that communication with the subsequent base station is established before communication with the original base station is terminated. When the remote unit is in communication with two base stations, the remote unit combines the signals received from each base station in the same manner that multipath signals from a common base station are combined.
In a typical macrocellular system, a system controller may be employed to create a single signal for the end user from the signals received by each base station. Within each base station, signals received from a common remote unit may be combined before they are decoded and thus take full advantage of the multiple signals received. The decoded result from each base station is provided to the system controller. Once a signal has been decoded it cannot be `combined` with other signals. Thus the system controller must select between the plurality of decoded signals produced by each base station with which communication is established by a single remote unit. The most advantageous decoded signal is selected from the set of signals from the base stations and the unchosen signals are simply discarded.
Remote unit assisted soft handoff operates based on the pilot signal strength of several sets of base stations as measured by the remote unit. The Active Set is a set of base stations through which active communication is established. The Candidate Set is a set of base stations chosen from the Neighbor Set or the Remaining Set having a pilot signal strength at a sufficient signal level to establish communication. The Neighbor Set is a set of base stations surrounding an active base station comprising base stations that have a high probability of having a signal strength of sufficient level to establish communication. The Remaining Set comprises all base station in the system which are not members of the Active, Candidate, or Neighbor Sets.
When communication is initially established, a remote unit communicates through a first base station and the Active Set contains only the first base station. The remote unit monitors the pilot signal strength of the base stations of the Active Set, the Candidate Set, the Neighbor Set, and the Remaining Set. When a pilot signal of a base station in the Neighbor Set or Remaining Set exceeds a predetermined threshold level, the base station is added to the Candidate Set. The remote unit communicates a message to the first base station identifying the new base station. A system controller decides whether to establish communication between the new base station and the remote unit. Should the system controller decide to do so, the system controller sends a message to the new base station with identifying information about the remote unit and a command to establish communications therewith. A message is also transmitted to the remote unit through the first base station. The message identifies a new Active Set that includes the first and the new base station. The remote unit searches for the new base station transmitted information signal and communication is established with the new base station without termination of communication through the first base station. This process can continue with additional base stations.
When the remote unit is communicating through multiple base stations, it continues to monitor the signal strength of the base stations of the Active Set, the Candidate Set, the Neighbor Set, and the Remaining Set. Should the signal strength corresponding to a base station of the Active Set drop below a predetermined threshold for a predetermined period of time, the remote unit generates and transmits a message to report the event. The system controller receives this message through at least one of the base stations with which the remote unit is communicating. The system controller may decide to terminate communications through the base station having a weak pilot signal strength. The system controller upon deciding to terminate communications through a base station generates a message identifying a new Active Set of base stations. The new Active Set does not contain the base station through which communication is to be terminated. The base stations through which communication is established send a message to the remote unit. The system controller also communicates information to the base station to terminate communications with the remote unit. The remote unit communications are thus routed only through base stations identified in the new Active Set.
Because the remote unit is communicating with the end user though at least one base station at all times throughout the soft handoff process, no interruption in communication occurs between the remote unit and the end user. A soft handoff provides significant benefits in its inherent "make before break" technique over the conventional "break before make" technique employed in other cellular communication systems.
In a wireless telephone system, maximizing the capacity of the system in terms of the number of simultaneous telephone calls that can be handled is extremely important. System capacity in a spread spectrum system can be maximized if the transmission power of each remote unit is controlled such that each transmitted signal arrives at the base station receiver at the same level. In an actual system, each remote unit may transmit the minimum signal level that produces a signal-to-noise ratio that allows acceptable data recovery. If a signal transmitted by a remote unit arrives at the base station receiver at a power level that is too low, the bit-error-rate may be too high to permit high quality communications due to interference from the other remote units. On the other hand, if the remote unit transmitted signal is at a power level that is too high when received at the base station, communication with this particular remote unit is acceptable but this high power signal acts as interference to other remote units. This interference may adversely affect communications with other remote units.
Therefore to maximize capacity in an exemplary CDMA spread spectrum system, the transmit power of each remote unit within the coverage area of a base station is controlled by the base station to produce the same nominal received signal power at the base station. In the ideal case, the total signal power received at the base station is equal to the nominal power received from each remote unit multiplied by the number of remote units transmitting within the coverage area of the base station plus the power received at the base station from remote units in the coverage area of neighboring base stations.
The path loss in the radio channel can be characterized by two separate phenomena: average path loss and fading. The forward link, from the base station to the remote unit, operates on a different frequency than the reverse link, from the remote unit to the base station. However because the forward link and reverse link frequencies are within the same general frequency band, a significant correlation between the average path loss of the two links exists. On the other hand, fading is an independent phenomenon for the forward link and reverse link and varies as a function of time.
In an exemplary CDMA system, each remote unit estimates the path loss of the forward link based on the total power at the input to the remote unit. The total power is the sum of the power from all base stations operating on the same frequency assignment as perceived by the remote unit. From the estimate of the average forward link path loss, the remote unit sets the transmit level of the reverse link signal. Should the reverse link channel for one remote unit suddenly improve compared to the forward link channel for the same remote unit due to independent fading of the two channels, the signal as received at the base station from this remote unit would increase in power. This increase in power causes additional interference to all signals sharing the same frequency assignment. Thus a rapid response of the remote unit transmit power to the sudden improvement in the channel would improve system performance. Therefore it is necessary to have the base station continually contribute to the power control mechanism of the remote unit.
Remote unit transmit power may also be controlled by one or more base stations. Each base station with which the remote unit is in communication measures the received signal strength from the remote unit. The measured signal strength is compared to a desired signal strength level for that particular remote unit. A power adjustment command is generated by each base station and sent to the remote unit on the forward link. In response to the base station power adjustment command, the remote unit increases or decreases the remote unit transmit power by a predetermined amount. By this method, a rapid response to a change in the channel is effected and the average system performance is improved. Note that in a typical cellular system, the base stations are not intimately connected and each base station in the system is unaware of the power level at which the other base stations receive the remote unit's signal.
When a remote unit is in communication with more than one base station, power adjustment commands are provided from each base station. The remote unit acts upon these multiple base station power adjustment commands to avoid transmit power levels that may adversely interfere with other remote unit communications and yet provide sufficient power to support communication from the remote unit to at least one of the base stations. This power control mechanism is accomplished by having the remote unit increase its transmit signal level only if every base station with which the remote unit is in communication requests an increase in power level. The remote unit decreases its transmit signal level if any base station with which the remote unit is in communication requests that the power be decreased. A system for base station and remote unit power control is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,109 entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING TRANSMISSION POWER IN A CDMA CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM," issued Oct. 8, 1991, assigned to the Assignee of the present invention.
It is also desirable to control the relative power used in each data signal transmitted by the base station in response to control information transmitted by each remote unit. The primary reason for providing such control is to accommodate the fact that in certain locations the forward channel link may be unusually disadvantaged. Unless the power being transmitted to the disadvantaged remote unit is increased, the signal quality may become unacceptable. An example of such a location is a point where the path loss to one or two neighboring base stations is nearly the same as the path loss to the base station communicating with the remote unit. In such a location, the total interference would be increased by three times over the interference seen by a remote unit at a point relatively close to its base station. In addition, the interference coming from the neighboring base stations does not fade in unison with the signal from the active base station as would be the case for interference coming from the active base station. A remote unit in such a situation may require 3 to 4 dB additional signal power from the active base station to achieve adequate performance.
At other times, the remote unit may be located where the signal-to-interference ratio is unusually good. In such a case, the base station could transmit the desired signal using a lower than normal transmitter power, reducing interference to other signals being transmitted by the system.
To achieve the above objectives, a signal-to-interference measurement capability can be provided within the remote unit receiver. This measurement is performed by comparing the power of the desired signal to the total interference and noise power. If the measured ratio is less than a predetermined value, the remote transmits a request to the base station for additional power on the forward link signal. If the ratio exceeds the predetermined value, the remote unit transmits a request for power reduction. One method by which the remote unit receiver can monitor signal-to-interference ratios is by monitoring the frame error rate (FER) of the resulting signal. Another way is by measuring the number of erasures received.
The base station receives the power adjustment requests from each remote unit and responds by adjusting the power allocated to the corresponding forward link signal by a predetermined amount. The adjustment is typically small, such as on the order of 0.5 to 1.0 dB, or around 12%. The rate of change of power may be somewhat slower than that used for the reverse link, perhaps once per second. In the preferred embodiment, the dynamic range of the adjustment is typically limited such as from 4 dB less than nominal to about 6 dB greater than nominal transmit power.
The base station should also consider the power demands being made by other remote units in deciding whether to comply with the requests of any particular remote unit. For example, if the base station is loaded to capacity, requests for additional power may be granted, but only by 6% or less, instead of the normal 12%. In this regime, a request for a reduction in power would still be granted at the normal 12% change.
When the original cellular telephone licenses were issued by the government, one of the restrictions on use of the spectrum was that the carriers could not provide dispatching system services. However, because of the great advantages of the CDMA system and the inherent expense and problems of deployment and maintenance of private dispatch systems, the government is re-examining this issue. The government itself would benefit greatly from such services.
Whereas typical wireless and wireline telephone service provides point-to-point service, dispatching services provide one-to-many service. Common usage of dispatch services are local police radio systems, taxicab dispatch systems, Federal Bureau of Intelligence and secret service operations, and general military communication systems.
The basic model of a dispatch system consists of a broadcast net of users. Each broadcast net user monitors a common broadcast forward link signal. If a net user wishes to talk, he presses a push-to-talk (PTT) button. Typically the talking user's voice is routed from the reverse link over the broadcast forward link. Ideally the dispatch system allows landline and wireless access to the system.
When a remote unit which is part of a dispatch system presses the push-to-talk button, he would like to immediately begin speaking. However in conventional wireless systems, a perceptible amount of time is necessary to establish a link before the user may begin speaking. The present invention is a solution to reduce to an acceptable level the perceptible amount of time that is necessary to establish a link.